Tusk: Russia is a strategic problem for the EU

Russia is not a strategic partner of the European Union, but is rather a strategic problem, former Polish Prime Minister and future President of the European Council Donald Tusk said on Friday in an interview with Financial Times journalist Henry Foy.

REUTERS

"The EU is a problem for Putin and Russia, [and] we need to understand that Russia is not our strategic partner - Russia is our strategic problem," Tusk said, according to Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.

Tusk also commented on the scandal over an interview by former Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski with the Politico magazine, saying that Putin did not suggest to him that Poland and Russia carve up Ukraine between them.

"After this event, I told Radosław that it’s much better to know a lot and talk little in politics and diplomacy, as well as in everyday life. And never vice versa," he said.

At the same time, he said that Sikorski had been correct regarding relations between Ukraine, the EU and Russia.

"If we’re talking about the relations between Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Europe, of course Sikorski was right. After the NATO summit in Bucharest, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned Ukrainian statehood, I had no doubt that the geopolitical game between Russia and Europe or between Russia and Poland concerned Ukraine," Tusk said.

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